UN rejects US-drafted resolution on South Sudan

The United Nations Security Council meets briefly on peace consolidation in West Africa and the situation in the Middle East at the UN headquarters in New York City, December 21, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

The UN Security Council has rejected a resolution drafted by the US that would have imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan.

Only seven countries of the 15-member council voted for the measure on Friday.

The United States, supported by Britain and France, had called for the arms embargo to halt the weapons flow into South Sudan, citing the UN warnings about a risk of mass atrocities.

Russia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Venezuela and the three African council members, Angola, Egypt and Senegal, all abstained.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the council after the vote, “This should not have been a contentious resolution.”

Washington also proposed to impose sanctions, including an assets freeze and a global travel ban, on Reik Machar, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’ former vice president who is currently a rebel leader, army chief Paul Malong and Information Minister Michael Makuei.

Japan, which has 350 troops deployed to Juba as part of the UN mission in South Sudan, also known as UNMISS, had warned that the American proposal would have threaten the lives of the UN peacekeepers.

South Sudan plunged into turmoil in late 2013, when President Kiir, a member of Dinka ethnic group, accused Machar, a Nuer, of plotting to take the helm of the oil-rich country.

As a result of distrust between the two, the world’s youngest nation sank into a civil war. Since then, clashes between the two sides have often followed ethnic lines.

Numerous internationally-mediated attempts for reconciliation between the conflicting sides have failed.